How do you keep your capacity needs satisfied when your in-house IT professional leaves the company? Let’s investigate.

Surely you remember Joe — thinning, silver-flecked hair, always wore paisley ties? Well, Joe’s retired now, and without him your company has found itself lacking a vital resource — its primary IT whiz. While some companies might move on without replacing Joe, opting to save a little money in the short term, a decision like this could prove catastrophic just a little farther down the road.

The fact is that most IT infrastructures are constantly expanding and evolving in order to meet throughput and capacity demands, but as these services begin to grow, they usually require more energy to function effectively.

IT optimization means figuring out how to expand your system’s capacity while simultaneously making it more efficient than it was the day before, which is by no means an easy feat. Here are a few ideas to help you and your company get started down the path towards IT maturity.

Take a Holistic Approach

No matter how skilled Joe was, there’s no way he could have successfully handled all of your company’s tech needs. In order to really equip your services for the demands of your current customers, you’ll need a whole team working to optimize them.

Keeping your IT infrastructure firing on all cylinders requires a whole range of important tasks. You’ll need a comprehensive approach to the way you sift through your data pool, thorough analysis to spot redundancies and themes, and then proper implementation of these results as part of an IT optimization plan.

All of that collection, analysis, and strategy, on top of the regular maintenance of your company’s hardware, is just way too much work for any one person to handle.

And it’s far too much for any one computer program, too. Even though data analytics are crucial when it comes to service optimization, they don’t necessarily provide you with the entire picture.

Tangible success requires the ability to properly integrate this information into your company’s existing strategies. But oftentimes, those who feel like they’re doing a good job responding to bugs and errors aren’t actually doing their job at all.

Become a Model of Maturity

To make things easier, the IT experts at TeamQuest have developed something called an Optimization Maturity Model. The model guides organizations through the five levels of IT optimization, beginning with those companies that lack any form of cohesive IT strategy whatsoever.

These companies with struggling IT infrastructures are at the first, “Chaotic” level. Businesses at level two have moved beyond this point, yet are still operating from a largely defensive position and are called “Reactive.” Once you can take empirical evidence and use patterns to predict future issues, you’ve advanced to level three, and can be classified as “Proactive.”

With total mastery of data behind you, companies that can start using other information to move forward have reached level four, the “Service” level. Finally, with complete aptitude in mitigating risk and maximizing gain, your IT mastery will become an asset to the business as a whole, bringing it to the final level: “Value.”

Staying Optimal

In order to climb the rungs of the Optimization Maturity Model, you will need a highly functional IT department — and yes, that means Joe will need to be replaced. While mastering predictive analytics and learning to effectively manage your company’s IT services are certainly tech-related pursuits, it’s important to remember that this process doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Make sure you include all of your departments when you strategize, as a more diverse range of opinions and company-wide communication will give you a better chance for success.

Additionally, your IT department, however adept it may be, might benefit from some outside help. TeamQuest partners with a host of businesses looking to optimize their systems, taking any client’s model and boosting its ability to remain stable amidst any unexpected shifts in service. This allows companies to continue offering their customers online access to their current services while cultivating the capacity for expansion and adaptability.

It takes more than one brainiac to run a successful IT department — just make sure you look for help in the right places.